Downing Street Declaration

views updated

Downing Street Declaration (December 15, 1993) Issued by the then prime minister John Major and the Irish taoiseach Albert Reynolds. Continuing the momentum of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, it set a framework for peace talks in Northern Ireland. It stated all democratically mandated political parties (including Sinn Féin) could be involved in an all-Ireland forum if they committed themselves to permanently ending paramilitary violence. The UK and Irish governments also agreed that the status of Northern Ireland could only change with majority consent of its people, and Ireland's future would be determined only by the peoples of the island of Ireland.

http://www.irlgov.ie/iveagh/angloirish/jointdeclaration

More From encyclopedia.com